This is a huge day for everyone connected with Sunderland, and I’m sure the players are looking forward to this as much as we all are. I could write 50,000 words on what this means, the build up and feeling ahead of this game but it’s covered brilliantly elsewhere on the site this morning – so I’m remaining focused on team selection!
While there has been some talk of rotation, I just don’t see it – it’s a milestone game for the club, and while yes, it comes in between two of the hardest Premier League
fixtures of the season, we’re still in the early weeks of the campaign and have a long international break on the horizon. While we will likely see some rotation later in the competition, I’ll be absolutely stunned if we didn’t play what Le Bris believes is his full strength team for this one.
Goalkeeper: Robin Roefs
Roefs will be in goal against a team from his homeland, and will be keen to impress.
Defence: Nordi Mukiele, Kevin Danso, Dan Ballard, Reinildo
I think it’ll be the same again in defence, with Ballard getting sharper by the week and Danso impressing alongside him. Nordi will likely be at right back, with Reinildo on the left – given he’ll be missing at the weekend, that seems a cert. Of course, there could be some injury/fitness concerns we don’t know about – Mukiele seemed to pick up a knock in the first half on Saturday – and the likes of Alderete could come in if Ballard or Danso needed a rest, but I think that if everyone’s fit, this will be the starting defence.
Midfield: Nilson Angulo, Enzo Le Fee, Granit Xhaka, Noah Sadiki, Malick Fofana
I do wonder whether we’ll go for it a bit more from the off tonight – harness the atmosphere and really take the game to AZ – and if that’s the case I think we’ll see Angulo switch over to the right and Malick Fofana coming in on the left hand side. Angulo’s done well in recent games – I don’t get the criticism at all – and he has played out on the right before. In the centre, it’ll surely be the same as usual, with Xhaka, Le Fee and Sadiki trying to control proceedings.
Striker: Brian Brobbey
Another opportunity for a Dutchman to impress against a club from his homeland, and you certainly wouldn’t bet against Brobbey getting on the scoresheet tonight. He had an excellent game against Arsenal and we just need to get some players closer to him to give him a hand.
